Steve Raney has a new idea for getting suburban commuters out of their cars that isn't really new at all: hitchhiking.

The Palo Alto, Calif., transportation consultant has come up with a scheme that he says would let people who live
near major thoroughfares catch rides to work without the uncertainty of traditional hitchhiking or the rigidity
of organized car pools.

They'd do it with technology instead of their thumbs, using transponders, the Internet and cellphones to connect
with co-workers driving through the neighborhood on their way to work.

Raney calls his brainstorm "digital hitchhiking" or "casual car-pooling." He wants to test
it with one employer — Microsoft — on one corridor: 148th Avenue in Bellevue, a four-lane arterial many Microsoft
workers use to reach the company's Redmond campus from Interstate 90.

Raney has pitched the idea to Microsoft, King County Metro, and Redmond and Bellevue city officials, so far without
success. All have told him they have higher transportation priorities.

Raney has nothing critical to say about the people who have turned him away. "It's not Microsoft's job to
pioneer new commute-trip reduction ideas for the entire nation," he says.

But he maintains his idea could someday make a dent in the large number of commuters who live just a few miles
from their suburban jobs and drive to work alone.

It's a market that has been especially resistant to transit, car pools and other alternatives to solo commuting,
Raney says: "Currently, there is no solution."

Tool to fight congestion

Raney isn't the first person to think of hitchhiking as a tool to fight congestion.

Drivers in Washington, D.C.'s, Virginia suburbs looking for enough passengers to drive in freeway high-occupancy-vehicle
(HOV) lanes have been giving lifts to strangers since the 1980s. They connect in the morning at bus stops and in
restaurant parking lots.

The small Marin County, Calif., community of San Geronimo began registering prospective hitchhikers and drivers
willing to pick them up in 1997, then designated official hitchhiking stops along the town's main road. Hitchhiking
has since been largely replaced by a shuttle bus, according to the project's Web site.

Raney says he began exploring the "digital hitchhiking" concept several years ago while he was pursuing
a master's degree in transportation planning at the University of California, Berkeley. His interest in technological
approaches to traffic came naturally: Before going back to school, he had worked for Microsoft and several other
high-tech firms in Silicon Valley.

Raney says he spent about one day a week on Microsoft's Redmond campus in the mid-1990s and gained some familiarity
with the geography of workers' commutes. He says the work he's done so far on a digital-hitchhiking pilot project
there has been financed by retired Microsoft employees.

Here's how he envisions it would work:

For his hitchhiking guinea pigs, Raney would recruit about 100 Microsoft employees who live within one-third mile
of 148th between Interstate 90 and Highway 520 and work at one of nine closely spaced buildings on the Redmond
campus.

He also would recruit 200 Microsoft solo commuters who funnel onto northbound 148th at I-90 each morning from points
east, west and south. Transponders would be affixed to their windshields so a "reader" on 148th Avenue
Southeast, just north of I-90, could identify them when they enter the 4-mile-long corridor.

When a prospective hitchhiker who lives near 148th is ready to leave home, he'd contact a server through his home
computer or by cellphone. In turn, the server would send a text message with estimates of when the next few hitchhiker-friendly
cars are likely to arrive at his preferred pickup point.

Drivers and passengers would hook up at designated zones at bus stops on 148th. Hitchhikers could walk or bike
there — all the drivers' cars would have bike racks — while checking the status of their ride continually if they
choose.

"Tech workers tend to like control," Raney says.

How about security? "They can flash their Microsoft ID cards at each other," he says.

And getting home from work? Hitchhikers could use their office PCs to arrange rides.

Raney says he hasn't worked up a precise budget for the pilot project, but figures it wouldn't top $200,000. The
software that would make everything run wouldn't be a big challenge to write, he maintains.

Providing an incentive

But Raney acknowledges he hasn't worked out all the details. One of the biggest questions: Just what incentive
would hitchhikers or drivers have to participate?

There are no HOV lanes on 148th; participants still would be stuck in traffic. The trips could take longer than
driving alone.

Raney says there's some evidence people might be motivated simply because they'd be doing something about traffic.
If that doesn't work, they could be rewarded with coupons from retailers. Or drivers might be given cash — say
$2 per day per passenger.

Dmitriy Nikonov, a Microsoft program manager who drives 148th to work from his home in Newcastle, says he'd pick
up digital hitchhikers in return for a reserved parking space on campus. Now, he says, he spends five minutes every
morning searching for one.

Nikonov, one of several Microsoft workers who recently accepted Raney's invitation to discuss digital hitchhiking
over lunch, says he likes the idea because it doesn't require the commitment of a formal car pool: "I don't
have to do it every day, or at any specific time. It works around my schedule."

Other projects on table

So why haven't Microsoft and local transit and planning officials embraced the concept?

Microsoft won't say much about it. In an e-mail, spokeswoman Tami Begasse said the company is working to increase
bus service from Seattle and the Eastside and to improve campus shuttle service.

"In addition, we are waiting to complete other projects related to our campus before diving deeper into other
options," she wrote.

Liability could be a concern for any employer sponsoring such a program, says Redmond planning director Roberta
Lewandowski.

Kris Liljeblad, assistant director of Bellevue's transportation department, says that bus stops on 148th have their
own pullout lanes, but a car stopping to pick up a hitchhiker could slow traffic.

What's more, he says, the project could poach riders from Metro buses and cost the transit agency money.

John Resha, executive director of an association that works with Microsoft and other Redmond employers to reduce
solo commuting, says Raney has some good ideas. But he questions whether all the gadgetry Raney envisions would
be too much for some. And he says Redmond civic and business officials already have plenty on their transportation
plates.

A partnership with Metro has produced more than 30 new van pools in the Overlake area over the past year. Sound
Transit is exploring extending rail or some other kind of high-capacity transit to the Eastside. And finding money
to widen the 520 bridge remains a priority.

So where does that leave Raney? He says he'll continue to polish the digital-hitchhiking concept, write an academic
paper on it, and keep fishing for a large employer who's willing to give it a real-world test.

"Let somebody else try it and work out the bugs," Lewandowski says.

"It may make sense as he does more of the academic work," Resha says. "If it pencils out over time,
it could work out."